The use of preservative containing waste wood as substrate for growing greenhouse crops

IRG/WP 93-50011

W J Homan,H Militz

In the Netherlands a large amount of waste wood and wood waste is produced every year. An important part of this amount comes from the pallet and packaging industries. One of the possibilities to re-use this relatively clean material is to convert it into substrates for growing crops in glass houses instead of the commonly used materials such as rock wool and glass wool. In this research, the influence of several material parameters such as wood species, texture, density, height, water holding capacity on the growth of cucumbers has been studied and this has been compared with the growth on rock wool, which is applied in approximately 95% of the glasshouses in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the influence has been investigated of anti blue stain preservatives on the growth of the cucumber plants, this kind of preservatives is often used in the dutch industry for protection of pallets. In general it can be concluded that when waste wood is to be used as substrate a few preservatives can be accepted and some others can not. The wood species teture, density, height and water holding capacity of the substrate showed to have only a slight effect on the growth of cucumbers.


Keywords: ANTI BLUE STAINS; SUBSTRATE CULTURE; GLASS HOUSE; HORTICULTURE; CUCUMBER

Conference: 93-05-16/21 Orlando, Florida, USA


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